THE IMPACT OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES ON CORPORATE PERFORMANCE: EXPLORING MECHANISMS AND CONDITIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY IN THE UAE

Strategic Alliances are fast gaining traction in the oil and gas Drilling Industry in the World and the UAE in particular, in contrast to the challenges that arise in the markets as a result of globalization and as a business strategy to enhance the corporate performance of the firms involved in the alliances. The alliances are also in the focus of academic and business researchers and interest in Strategic Alliances has significantly increased over the past decades. This research aims to study to what extent do strategic alliances impact the corporate performance of the firms involved in these alliances in the oil and gas Industry of UAE. It also aims at identifying the factors determining the success of the strategic alliances in the UAE oil and gas industry. A thorough literature review was carried out through which three overarching factors determining SA success have been identified: SA success Strategic Factors, Operational Factors, and Tactical Factors. To address the research questions a structured questionnaire was developed using a 5-point Likert scale and 275 questionnaires were collected from key informants working in the firms involved in the strategic alliance in the Abu Dhabi oil and gas industry. Multidimensional data analysis methods have been applied to test the a priori model of Strategic alliance success factors impacting corporate performance. Particularly, Structural Equation Modeling was applied, in addition to correlations analysis exploratory factor analysis, as well as reliability, validity, and adequacy tests. In general, the research findings were consistent with the literature indicating that engagement in Strategic Alliances positively impacts the corporate performance of the firms involved. The results suggest that Strategic Alliance success operational factors are critically important which include establishing a formalized mechanism that supports alliance operations and daily management. Strategic Alliance success is not preconditioned to the existence or absence of dominance by one partner or dominance in resources controlled, but rather depends on the appropriateness of the form of cooperation for alliance and the degree of commitment between the partners. Furthermore, the research suggests that though disparities in management style and culture between the companies are important factors of SA success, operational control and coordination play a more important role and when properly implemented may mitigate the negative impact of existiig organizational disparities between the partners. Finally, Strategic Alliance success factors positively impact Corporate Performance and improves engagement in firms as well as quality of marketing, access to new markets, and usage of information technologies. This research provides quantified evidence that Strategic Alliance does add value to the firms concerned. Among the practical implications of this research are that the identified list of the SA success factors may be used by the companies involved in the strategic alliances during SA performance and implementation monitoring and evaluation process. Furthermore, the research provides policymakers in GCC countries with adequate information on the significance of the strategic alliances in the diversification of their economies. Based on research outputs recommendations for the corporations intending to engage in SA or currently involved in SAs are as follows: the companies are recommended to pay remarkable attention to the operational factors of SA operations ensuring that formalized mechanisms supporting alliance operation and daily management are properly established and maintained, e.g., ensuring that clear rules, policies, and procedures that guide cooperation procedures are in place, roles and responsibilities within the alliance are properly distributed, etc. Last but not least, the companies are recommended to ensure proper operational control and coordination, as well as ensure that the form of the alliance is appropriate and the degree of commitment between the partners is sufficient

Giant Mediastinal Myxoid Pleomorphic Liposarcoma

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Measuring supply chain complexity based on multi-criteria decision approach

This study identified twenty-two drivers that cause the complexity in supply chain. The level of such complexity is quantified by using hybrid AHP and GRA method. A case company is studied in order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. The results from the case company were analyzed and it is seen that the level of supply chain complexity of the case company is 0.44, which is signifying that there is a considerable scope of improvement in terms of minimizing complexity in its supply chain. From the study outcomes, it is realized that the case company mainly needs substantial improvement on the issues of “government regulation,” “internal communication and information sharing,” and “company culture” in order to minimize the level of accompanied complexity in its supply chain.©2020 IEOM Society.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Thermo-economic assessment of flexible nuclear power plants in the UK’s future low-carbon electricity system: role of thermal energy storage

Nuclear power plants are commonly operated as baseload units due to their low variable costs, high investment costs and limited ability to modulate their output. The increasing penetration of intermittent renewable power will require additional flexibility from conventional generation units, in order to follow the fluctuating renewable output while guaranteeing security of energy supply. In this context, coupling nuclear reactors with thermal energy storage could ensure a more continuous and efficient operation of nuclear power plants, while at other times allowing their operation to become more flexible and cost-effective. This study considers options for upgrading a 1610-MWel nuclear power plant with the addition of a thermal energy storage system and secondary power generators. The analysed configuration allows the plant to generate up to 2130 MWel during peak load, representing an increase of 32% in nominal rated power. The gross whole-system benefits of operating the proposed configuration are quantified over several scenarios for the UK’s low-carbon electricity system. Replacing conventional with flexible nuclear plant configuration is found to generate system cost savings that are between £24.3m/yr and £88.9m/yr, with the highest benefit achieved when stored heat is fully discharged in 0.5 hours (the default case is 1 hour). At an estimated cost of added flexibility of £42.7m/yr, the proposed flexibility upgrade to a nuclear power plant appears to be economically justified for a wide range of low-carbon scenarios, provided that the number of flexible nuclear units in the system is small

Persistent Pneumothorax: Alveolar pleural fistula due to a hole in a bulla

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Sustainability for Heavy Engineering Equipment Industries Using Lean Concepts

Steel is one of the most used materials in the industry. In particular, Steel is the dominating material used in the fabrication of heavy engineering equipment. It is estimated that the world’s annual production of Steel is 1500 Million tons. One of the best ways to reduce such environmental hazard is by recycling of Steel. Recycling of Steel is widely implemented and in terms of tonnage Steel is the most recycled material in the world. Currently, it is estimated that 85% of annual steel production is recycled worldwide. Sustainability benefits of recycling steel include conserving valuable natural resources and raw materials and eliminate negative environmental effects. However, in many cases, handling and transportation of scrap steels to recycling facilities and locations may not be feasible due to many reasons such as transportation cost, scrap bulky sizes and shapes, or scrap quantities. Therefore, in such cases Steel scrap presents a real problem to relevant industries; heavy engineering equipment industries present an example of suffering industries. Lean Manufacturing is one of the best ways to run a manufacturing company and Lean principles have been successfully applied in many industries in the last two decades or so. In this paper a “Road Map” for a heavy engineering equipment company is suggested to make use of huge amounts of steel by recycling. A case study is selected to be on one of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil Companies. The aim is to develop and apply Lean concepts to reduce and eliminate Steel scrap accumulation. The paper takes into consideration the actual accumulated Steel scrap resulting from the company processes for ten years. The results of the paper show that applying of the Lean concept will beneficially lead to reducing the accumulated scrap over the years and accordingly save a lot of resources. The conclusions demonstrate that sustainability is fruitful to be adopted in this area

Screening for Anti-Cancer Compounds in Marine Organisms in Oman

Objectives: Marine organisms are a rich source of bioactive molecules with potential applications in medicine, biotechnology and industry; however, few bioactive compounds have been isolated from organisms inhabiting the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. This study aimed to isolate and screen the anti-cancer activity of compounds and extracts from 40 natural products of marine organisms collected from the Gulf of Oman. Methods: This study was carried out between January 2012 and December 2014 at the Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. Fungi, bacteria, sponges, algae, soft corals, tunicates, bryozoans, mangrove tree samples and sea cucumbers were collected from seawater at Marina Bandar Al-Rowdha and Bandar Al-Khayran in Oman. Bacteria and fungi were isolated using a marine broth and organisms were extracted with methanol and ethyl acetate. Compounds were identified from spectroscopic data. The anti-cancer activity of the compounds and extracts was tested in a Michigan Cancer Foundation (MCF)-7 cell line breast adenocarcinoma model. Results: Eight pure compounds and 32 extracts were investigated. Of these, 22.5% showed strong or medium anti-cancer activity, with malformin A, kuanoniamine D, hymenialdisine and gallic acid showing the greatest activity, as well as the soft coralSarcophyton sp. extract. Treatment of MCF-7 cells at different concentrations of Sarcophyton sp. extracts indicated the induction of concentration-dependent cell death. Ultrastructural analysis highlighted the presence of nuclear fragmentation, membrane protrusion, blebbing and chromatic segregation at the nuclear membrane, which are typical characteristics of cell death by apoptosis induction. Conclusion: Some Omani marine organisms showed high anti-cancer potential. The efficacy, specificity and molecular mechanisms of anti-cancer compounds from Omani marine organisms on various cancer models should be investigated in future in vitro and in vivo studies

DEVELOPING A METHODOLOGY TO PREPARE DESIGN ACCORDING TO PRODUCTION REQUIREMENT

ليلى القره غولي, [3/2/2024 10:03 AM] Abdel-Rahman, G. E. (1982)" Correlations Between index tests and the properties of Egyption Clay". Ms.C. Thesis, college of engineering, university of Cairo. Al-Busoda, b. S. Z. (2009) "Evaluation and correlations Associated with liquid Limit and Plasticity index of Baghdad Cohesive Soil", The 6 Engineering Conference, Proceedings of the Conference, Civil Engineering, Volume 1. Bowels, JE (1996)" Foundation Analysis and Design McGraw-Hill Companies. Buringh, P. (1960)" Soil and condition in Iraq" Ministry of Agriculture, Baghdad Das, BM. (2002) Principles of Geotechnical Engineering" Fifth edition, Wadsworth Group Khamehchiyan, M and Iwao, Y. (1994) "Geotechnical properties of Ariake clay in Saga Plain Japan Journal of Geotechnical Engineering. No.505. V.29, PP. 11-18. December Rahardjo, PP (2007)" In situ testing and soil properties correlations" In conjunction with International Conference on In Measurement of Soil Properties and Case Histories, Parahyangan Catholic University USDA (2004) Correlations between soil plasticity and strength Parameters" Advanced Engineering Geology & Geotechnics. Yilmaz, Isik (2000) "Evaluation of shear strength of of clayey soils by using their liquidity index Bull Eng Geo Env.. V. 59, P. 227-229 ليلى القره غولي, [3/2/2024 10:08 AM] This paper aims to develop a program based on a methodology to enable the preparation of design according to production requirement. Thus, the appropriate algorithms were developed to evaluate the product design according to assembly requirements and also to assess the product design according to manufacturing requirements. The programs were applied to four case studies, two of them for Design for Assembly (DFA) and other two were for Design for Manufacturing (DFM). The study concluded that the method gives very good results for (DFA) and results of the studied two cases showed to lower the total assembly time, as well as increases the quality of the operation by lowering the probability of error expectation. However, results of (DFM) studies cases showed that the proposed program needs more development to cover all factors affecting the manufacturing processes. The paper concluded that the suggested and developed DFA and DFM programs are a valid and beneficial approach; however, more research work is required to establish a complete and comprehensive database to match the experience of human experts in the field. Adding such database to the developed programs will increase its reliability and applicabilit

An Investigation of Object Shadows Utilization In 3D Shape Re-Construction Using Inexpensive Equipment

An approach for automatic 3D object re-construction using its shadow ispresented. The approach investigates the use of information inherited by thegenerated object shadows to re-construct the object geometry. An algorithm isdeveloped that make use of object height information for the directions associatedwith the incident light and the generated object shadows, hence, acquired heightfeatures represents the object features that have actually obstructed the incidentlight. The technique is tested using objects of different shapes. Close to realmeasurements are gained and the overall accuracy of the system is found to bewithin 0.75 mm using the adopted imaging hardware and setup. Obtained resultsconfirmed the validity of the proposed approach